for more info, contact Steven Benko <sbenko@bellsouth.net> david *** CALL FOR PAPERS Princeton, NJ, March 23-26, 2006 American Contemporary Literature Association Annual Meeting: The Human and Its Other Seminar Title: The Human in Posthuman Technology Seminar Organizer(s): Steven A. Benko, Meredith College (benkos@meredith.edu) Answers to questions of how technology impacts definitions of what it means to be human, what is other than human, what constitutes the good, natural and normal for human life and society, and how subjects can constitute, experience and communicate their own otherness through technology vary widely along the spectrum from humanism to posthumanism. At one end are bioconservative responses that suggest a shared and unchanging conception of human nature threatened by scientific and technological advances that alter or enhance human capabilities and functioning. At the other end are posthuman responses that use science and technology as an occasion for the kind of individuation that relativizes and resists humanism’s essentializing ethnocentrism. This seminar will explore literary, philosophical and religious depictions of science and technology in terms of how what is human, other than human, and the relationship between the two is defined. Possible topics include: defining the posthuman through literature; the use of technology to define the human and its other in a specific author or genre; the possibility of developing a critical theory of technology or an ethics of technology vis-à-vis the human, its other, and obligations to preserve what it means to be human or an obligation to the other; the use of religious rituals, tropes or imagery to restrain, encourage, and determine the morality of scientific and technological development and the depiction of what it means to be human/posthuman. The list of accepted seminars for the 2006 Annual Meeting has been posted (go to the paper proposal <http://aslamp01.princeton.edu/%7Eoitdas/acla06/> form; go to the Seminars <http://webscript.princeton.edu/%7Eacla06/site/?page_id=12> ) and individual paper proposals are now being accepted. The conference is organized primarily into seminars (or “streams”), which consist either of twelve papers, if they meet on all three days of the conference, or eight to nine papers, if they meet on two days. Papers should be 15-20 minutes long–no longer–to allow time for discussion. To propose a paper, first consult the list of accepted seminar proposals. If you find a topic there that fits your paper, select that seminar when you fill out the paper proposal submission form. If you do not find a seminar topic that fits your paper, you may propose your paper for the general pool, out of which additional seminars are likely to be formed. Paper proposals are 250 words, max. Proposals are due no later than November 30th. Paper proposals can be submitted through the ACLA 2006 website (http://webscript.princeton.edu/~acla06/site/). If you have any questions about this particular seminar, contact the seminar organizer at benkos@meredith.edu.